There was a time where it was uncommon to see a horse in Australia have their first start over a mile and even rarer at 2000m.
As for a hurdle race, that is almost unheard of.
But the Warrnambool May Carnival is like no other with 30 races spread over the three days with a mix of feature races for sprinters and stayers, maiden races, restricted class races and jumps race, including Australia’s longest race, the Grand Annual Steeplechase.
The Ciaron Maher and David Eustace stable targets the Carnival, with success, but it is Maher’s brother Declan who has one of the most intriguing runners of the three days.
While it is common practise in Europe, New Zealand-bred gelding Half Mast will make his racetrack debut in the George Taylor Memorial Maiden Hurdle (3200m) on Tuesday.
Half Mast is a son of Raise The Flag, the same sire as Ablaze who proved a Warrnambool hero winning Australia’s longest flat race, the Jericho Cup (4600m) at Warrnambool in December 2019 before coming out the following May to win the Grand Annual Steeplechase.
“I did accept with him once in a 1700-metre (flat) race at Warrnambool, but it was not wet enough, and I just thought I was just wasting my time going there,” Declan Maher said.
“Ciaron and I own him and we’ve got a few clients that might want to go in him, but we just didn’t have enough time before Warrnambool.
“There is one out of the dam that has won in Hong Kong, and it’s actually not a bad family, but he was bought on the back of Ablaze.
“He looks a lot like Ablaze, jumps a lot like Ablaze, but he’s just not as fast as Ablaze.
“I’m not in any way saying the horse is fast, because he’s not fast, but there are two things I don’t mind in a horse, one is a horse that can stay and one that can jump.
“He can definitely do both of those things.”
Half Mast has been given plenty of schooling in preparation for his debut, travelling to Cranbourne twice, to Terang, Yarra Valley before a narrow Terang win April 21.
Maher hopes Half Mast will return to Warrnambool in years to come and may one day emulate the feats of Ablaze, especially in the Grand Annual.
“He’s still developing and the Raise The Flags are late maturers,” Maher said.
“He’s a four-year-old but he’s still like a three-year-old. I think he’ll stay all day and be one for the future in those big features, but it’s not going to be this year.
“This year is all about educating him and teaching him to be a racehorse and I think 3200 metres is a lot better to be starting him off at than 2000 metres.”
